1

I am looking for suggestions and examples on IT support contract/SLA’s definitions of response times for clients.

Example defining its a holiday and client calls saying computer is slow? or network down or printer not working etc.

Our office is closed but they want support outside or business hours and expect a certain response time.

So please send me let me know what you use for templates guidelines etc for this type of thing in MSP or Independent or corporate world.

Thanks in advance

2 Spice ups
2

I did a quick Google search for SLA Response Time Template and saw this…

If you have an existing agreement, you could request adding the SLA at contract renew time. Remember that the SLA can directly impact cost. IE faster service will cost more. It’s like a fast pass at Disney.

2 Spice ups
3

Exactly Fast Pass…but is also defines the limitation and expectation of both parties as well you agree?

4

When I worked for an MSP, we had SLAs to make contact within the first 2 hours of an opened ticket with an expectation for closure to be within 8 business hours. It really depends on the level of support required. If they do require holiday and after-hours support it might be best to ask them what they expect and then give them the rate to support them.

1 Spice up
5

@brittany-ninjaone has a bunch of free templates publish for MSPs on this type of stuff

including one specific to SLA’s

could be worth a look

2 Spice ups
6

Yikes… what do you do if you can’t close a ticket in 8 hours? I can think of many examples off the top of my head that take longer than that to close…

Like I Spilled coffee on my laptop and need a new one… but we are to cheap to allow you to keep spare hardware and now you have to start a purchase request for a custom device that will take 3 weeks to get

1 Spice up
7

That has often been my question, what is the penalty and what sort of outs do companies have. Like, sorry needed a part, vendor on back order. Do I get a month of free service if the 8 hour window is missed. You can promise anything but if there is no penalty, it seems a little meaningless.

2 Spice ups
8

In that kind of situation, we would create multiple tickets & associate them together. So, in the case of a coffee infused laptop we would troubleshoot to confirm the laptop could not be salvaged and close the ticket. Then create a ticket to purchase a new laptop, then another ticket when the laptop arrived until it was deployed to the end user.

1 Spice up
9

well that would certainly make for a higher number of tickets that look good on a monthly report.

How would you track and manage the process \ time in between steps such as between ordering and receiving the laptop so that the request doesn’t get lost or forgotten and you still know who the laptop is to be charged to and delivered to at the end of that process?

1 Spice up
10

It did make reports look skewed as far as ticket numbers went. But my supervisor insisted that every task we did was documented in a ticket. Depending on your ticketing system I believe you could put tickets in a pending/hold status so the SLA timer would not run. At this job we tried not to put anything on hold/pending. So, we would just close the ticket with an internal note to buildout the laptop once it was received. All of our client assets were put into our asset management, which was unfortunately an excel sheet at the time.

1 Spice up
11

Sorry for the 20 questions, but when you say internal note what do you mean? I know this is something I struggle with a bit at rebilling time when I have to sort out the invoices and remember who each order was for and why… Especially since invoices often run 30 or more days behind the actual order and behind receipt and deployment. LOL Just wondering how others keep track of this info. Excel seems to be a common answer

Our system has a waiting status, but that does come with its own issues in terms of cluttering up the queue and a tendency to ignore tickets in that status

1 Spice up
12

Just an internal note on the ticket for that request, so it’s not customer visible. I’ve never been a fan of placing tickets in pending/waiting status. But if your system has it, set a reminder notification/email to check on a certain date. I honestly just started creating calendar tasks to remind me of things like this.

2 Spice ups
13

LOL… I do to… Was just hoping you might have something better :slight_smile:

2 Spice ups
14

Make sure that “holidays” and “after hours” are clearly defined. For example, you might consider National Bacon Day a holiday, but they’re open for business (and they’re closed on International Bacon Day, but you’re working that day, you poor sod). If you’re going to charge higher rates on days that you’re closed, they need to understand that. And if you’re working and they need help on a day that they’re closed, does that count under the holiday rates or not?

NOTE: National Bacon Day is December 30th in the United States. International Bacon Day is either the first Saturday in September, or the Saturday before Labor Day, depending on which Google result you click on. To be on the safe side, we should observe it on all of those days. The years where the Saturday before Labor Day falls in August are bonus years: THREE days to celebrate bacon!

2 Spice ups
15

Oh yeah, absolutely. To stick with the FastPass example, multiple people can’t use that same FastPass at the same time. The SLA should certainly spell out the expectations.

1 Spice up